Frequency-dependent polarization of repeating fast radio bursts implications for their origin

The polarization of fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are bright astronomical transient phenomena, contains information about their environments. Using wide-band observations with two telescopes, we report polarization measurements of five repeating FRBs and find a trend of lower polarization at lower frequencies. This behavior is modeled as multipath scattering, characterized by a single parameter, sigma(Rm), the rotation measure (RM) scatter. Sources with higher sigma(Rm) have higher RM magnitude and scattering time scales. The two sources with the highest sigma(Rm), FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B, are associated with compact persistent radio sources. These properties indicate a complex environment near the repeating FRBs, such as a supernova remnant or a pulsar wind nebula, consistent with their having arisen from young stellar populations.

Automated summary

Observations of five repeating FRBs revealed a trend of lower polarization at lower frequencies. This behavior can be modeled as multipath scattering, characterized by the rotation measure (RM) scatter. Sources with higher RM scatter have higher RM magnitude and scattering time scales. Furthermore, the two sources with the highest RM scatter are associated with compact persistent radio sources.